But the CBS Sports analyst isn’t too into the 16-game potential of Ryan Fitzpatrick as the Texans’ starting quarterback this season.

“(Fitzpatrick) is about as smart and gritty as they come in the NFL,” said Esiason, during a media conference call Thursday. “But let’s face it: Houston right now has probably got one of the worst quarterback situations and it’s probably one of the reasons why Andre Johnson has been so frustrated.”

“This is a team that could surprise some people,” Esiason said. “But the problem is, the more you see of the average quarterbacks in this league, the more you dislike, especially when you compare them to the quarterbacks at the top of the league, like whether it be (Peyton) Manning or (Tom) Brady or (Drew) Brees or Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethlisberger — those guys go out and win games for their teams.

“Houston is going to be in the same situation as (the) Buffalo (Bills), in the sense that if their quarterback position turns the ball over, makes mistakes and has a low percentage of pass completions, then unfortunately they’re not going to make the playoffs. But they have a very good roster. And coach O’Brien is a tremendous football coach who knows what it takes to win. The question really comes down to, can they get some sort of positive performance from the quarterback position?”

Longtime NFL tight end Tony Gonzalez said he regularly won during his career on defense-first teams that managed games offensively. But Fitzpatrick’s first year with the Texans could determine just how strong a team that went 2-14 last season is in 2014.

“He’s a very smart quarterback. But sometimes he’s determined to throw,” Gonzalez said. “It’s going to be up to the coach to make sure that they spread things out and make his throws decisive. Play small ball and just … let the the other team make the mistakes and hopefully capitalize.”

“They can’t come from two scores behind and win,” said the first-year CBS analyst. “Fitzpatrick just isn’t that type of player.”